Republicans May Have Found A Brilliant Way To Win The Sequester

Senate aides confirmed Friday that Republicans are coalescing
around an alternative to the sequester that would keep the lower
spending levels in place, but give federal agencies greater
flexibility to determine where the cuts are implemented.

The exact details of the
Republican proposals are unclear. A GOP Senate aide told Business
Insider that Republicans are considering a plan that would
fund the government at the levels dictated by the sequestration —
which amounts to about $85 billion in spending cuts for fiscal
year 2013 — while giving the Obama administration the flexibility
to reprogram the cuts at their discretion, provided that the
balance remains between defense and non-defense discretionary
spending cuts.

First, it deals with the
biggest problem of the sequester, namely its meat-cleaver
approach to spending cuts. This undercuts the White House's main
argument against the sequester, which is that the cuts are
arbitrary, and therefore threatening.

In reality, $85 billion is a relatively small number when it
comes to the federal budget.

The Department of Transportation, for example, only needs to find
$1 billion in cuts this year, or about 2 percent of its $55
billion budget. If the cuts are not applied uniformly to every
program, it's hard to imagine that the DOT could not cut $1
billion from the department with marginal impact to its workforce
and to everyday Americans.

The second benefit to the GOP
plan is that it allows Republicans to avoid the political
pitfalls of proposing their own budget cuts, and forces the Obama
administration to determine — and take ownership — of the
spending cuts.

The one problem with the GOP
plan, however, is that it is unlikely to mitigate the effect of
the spending cuts for the Defense Department, a key concern among
Republicans.

"We prefer to have some more
latitude, but at this stage in the game, the cuts are going to be
painful no matter what," Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a
spokesperson for the Pentagon, told Business Insider.

The budget cuts, Robbins
explained, would apply to fiscal year 2013, but because the
federal fiscal year begins in September, they would have to be
condensed over just seven months.

The White House is likely to
use this as political cover against the Senate Republicans'
flexibility proposal. One Senate Democratic aide told Business
Insider that Democrats are ready to reject the Republican plan,
and will continue to insist that any sequester replacement
include both spending cuts and new tax revenues. Moreover, House
Republicans are also unlikely to provide much support for a plan
that gives the Obama administration the authority to determine
the spending cuts.

The more likely solution,
according to administration officials and Senate aides, is that
the White House will continue to fight the sequester battle, and
use the upcoming fight over the Continuing Resolution to gain the
additional flexibility in determining how to implement the
cuts.

In the meantime, however,
Republicans may have found a way to gain some ground in a debate
they have been losing for months.